A/N: A fast update! I'm a bit surprised at myself for that but oh well... :P ;) Anyways, the last chapter was a filler chapter of sorts but I thought that it was important to find out what Kagome and Ayumi had written to the others in their letters.
Thank you to I love snowy owls for their review on chapter 10. :)
On with chapter 10 and the continuation of their journey! And before I forget it... MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Timeless
Chapter 10 - The burning village
"Naraku, I think that it would be wise if we pull back a bit further into the caves. We haven't regained our full strength yet, so should Inuyasha and his group, or any other of our former enemies make it here for that matter, we wouldn't stand a fair chance against them." Kikyo looked at Naraku imploringly, hoping that he would understand where she was coming from.
"We shall do that then." Naraku smiled down at her before turning to the rest of the assembled demons. "We need to retreat further into the tunnels if we wish to defeat that Inuyasha and his group with our full force." The demons around him murmered. They knew that what he was saying made sense, but most of them still wished to extract revenge more, rather than hide and build up their powers, it simply wasn't their style.
"Together we would be able to beat them now though." Hisashi spoke out, knowing that this was what most of the demons were thinking.
"But we would suffer heavy losses and we must not forget that Inuyasha is the only one out there. They might not have the support of that aggravating miko Kagome, but they still have a priest and a demon slayer in that group, not to mention two other demons. We would still lose many that are gathered in these caves." Naraku looked them all in the eyes, daring them to speak against him.
"And then there is also the problem of Inuyasha's older brother Sesshomaru. If Inuyasha was able to pick up that we were back, then Sesshomaru will most definitely know that we are back and he will come and search for us. And he isn't a hanyou like Inuyasha is, he is a full inu taiyoukai and also the current Lord of the Western Lands. Fighting against both brothers and their entourages simultaneously could be fatal for us. Having known both before I would say that it would be more beneficial to build up our strengths." Kikyo said, also glaring at the assembly of demons before her as Naraku had.
The demons gulped and slowly nodded, not wishing to speak against the two in front of them and began to leave to make preparations for their retreat into caves further back. Hisashi growled lowly to himself as he mockingly bowed to Naraku and Kikyo before leaving. This wasn't going as planned. He had thought that Kikyo and Naraku would be so overcome with the urge for revenge that they would let themselves be manipulated by himself and the other demons.
But so far to no avail. The two had stood strong and had called forth a sense of fear and respect in the other demons that he hadn't expected. And he knew that if push came to shove that the demons would follow those two rather than him. It was infuriating really. He had had it all planned out so carefully and now it seemed as if his plans for revenge against the humans and Naraku were burning down into ashes.
He would just have to bide his time. He really had no other choice right now. But while Naraku was building his strength, he would also build his strength and then he would become strong enough to eat that miserable hanyou and that infuriating miko and then he would be the undisputed strongest of them all.
A slow smile formed on his face as he left. He would prevail and become the leader of demons once more. He would not allow himself to be trumped by Naraku a second time, he would make sure of that.
Midoriko watched the scowling form of Hisashi leave the room. She did not like his intentions, but neither did she like any of the demons around here. She looked over at the forms of Kikyo and Naraku. She sensed in them what she knew had happened in herself. Some kind of purity had cancelled out the evil of the demons that had been used to create them, just like her former goodness had purified the demoness that had taken the place of her own heart.
What she wondered about more and more though recently was what their real objectives were. If those two had in essence been purified in one way or another, then they should have a clear mind and their own, very distinctive personalities. But if anything the other demons mumbled about in the shadows was to go by, then those two were already acting differently than the way they had been acting in their previous lives.
She knew what her true objective was. The retrieval of her heart, as well as the elimination of all demons around. The second objective had become more and more prevalent over the final years of her former life. After seeing the suffering of all those around her, she knew that demons had to be eradicated so that people could live a calm and peaceful life.
But then again, that was her. What about those two in front of her, that seemed to be so sure of what they did? What were their real objectives?
~.~.~.~.~
"How long has it been since you last saw your village?" Kagome looked at Sango, knowing that it was a painful subject for her best friend, but this question had been plaguing her mind for the better part of the week now. And so far she had been unable to come up with any kind of answer.
Sango's eyes grew slightly distant as she remembered her village. "About two years I think. We all went to see how the graves were doing and we put down flowers to commemorate their death day. Kohaku came too, although Sesshomaru and the others kept their distance."
"And last year?" Kagome knew that if they had gone to the graves once, they would surely go again.
"We didn't manage to go." Sango looked sad as she looked over at her. "Inuyasha and Miroku were on an extermination mission while I was helping Kaede in some other village where there had been a landslide. I was supposed to go on the mission with Inuyasha and Miroku too, I wasn't pregnant back then yet, but the distress message came the morning we were supposed to leave and fearing that it might have been the work of demons, I went along with Kaede."
"We were supposed to after we had all returned but somehow after that, the number of demons appearing and causing havock began to increase so we were constantly in and out of the village, often having to do seperate missions to get it all done." Miroku continued to explain to Kagome.
"If I think back on it now, the increase in demon numbers may have something to do with the reason that we're travelling to your village today." Inuyasha made a rare insightful comment as he looked at Sango.
"That's very possible, I mean, the demons may even have tried to prevent us from going near the village, knowing that we would probably investigate should we find something slightly off." Miroku mused, it hadn't really occured to him before, but their opponent may be slightly cleverer than they had initially thought.
"If that's the case then our opponent might not only be Naraku, but also the one that brought him back from the dead." Kagome looked slightly afraid at the prospect of another fearsome enemy appearing.
"So you think that he didn't come back himself?" Shippo looked at the rest of them with fear. If someone was able to bring Naraku back to life, then that person must be pretty strong themselves.
"Possibly, but we can't really be all that sure." Miroku said soothingly, knowing that getting all agitated and afraid now wasn't really going to do any of them any good. He did believe that someone else was at work here too, and it wasn't an idea he particularily liked.
"Maybe Naraku's re-awakening also had something to do with the Shikon no Tama reappearing." Kagome looked at the jewel hanging around her neck. She and Kaede had created a barrier around it to prevent anyone else from sensing it, but it made her uneasy to think that it all had to do with this one jewel once again.
"I seriously hope not." Sango looked over at Kagome. "Because if it does, then maybe it also means that he and other demons will come after it once more."
"Let them try. We'll just defeat them like we defeated them before." Inuyasha held up Tetsusaiga and Shippo grinned at him, feeling slightly reassured.
"Yeah!" Shippo and Kirara agreed with Inuyasha and the others smiled. It felt good to be back in their group like in previous times.
Continuing down the road, Kagome took in the passing countryside. It didn't seem as if much had changed, in fact, it looked exactly the same as it had been before she had left. The fields were still a beautiful green and the countryside surrounding them seemed peaceful. She knew why she preferred this era to the modern one, despite its many dangers. It was calmer, slower and gave off a more natural feel. She smiled as she looked around herself. It felt truly good to be back.
Suddenly Inuyasha stopped and lifted his nose into the air, sniffing around like a dog.
"Is something the matter Inyasha?" Miroku looked at his friend in worry, the scrunched up expression on his face normally bore no good.
"I smell smoke. It's strong and coming from the village that we're heading towards." The others looked at each other in alarm.
"Let's go then, we need to find out what happened." Kagome quickly climbed onto Inuyasha's back as he took off and Sango and Miroku joined Shippo on the now fully-grown Kirara.
"I hope nothing bad has happened." Sango held onto Miroku tightly as Kirara ran forward.
"So do I Sango, so do I." But in his heart Miroku knew that it wouldn't be anything good. Smoke and villages together normally didn't.
~.~.~.~.~
"There's some smoke coming from that village over there." Yukari nodded towards the pillars of smoke that were slowly beginning to rise over the horizon.
"Hn." Sesshomaru nodded before taking a closer sniff of the air. It smelled like a fire, and it didn't smell like one that was accidental.
"Should we go and check it out?" Kohaku asked as he and Jaken began to mount Ah-Un.
"Should we, Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken attempted to make himself more comfortable on the herbivorous demon.
"Yes." And with that they all took off, feeling that this might have something to do with the demons that they had been looking for in the past month.
~.~.~.~.~
"What do you think you're doing?" Midoriko hissed at the demons in front of her as she stared at the chaos that had once been a calm and peaceful village. It was currently going up in flames and people were running through the streets in a village, some trying to quench the fire in vain while others were looking for loved ones and others were simply panicking. It tore at her heart to see all of the humans suffering in front of her.
"Hisashi ordered us to offer the ones that were beginning to close in on us a distraction. Something that will occupy them and give us more time." The demon quivered slightly underneath Midoriko's withering glare and she was barely able to hold herself back from incinerating him right where he stood.
"And a distraction means that you set some village into flames, killing innocent people." Her pupils had grown into slits and her voice was low and deathly.
"They're not as innocent as you make them out to be former miko." Another demon stepped forth, looking her straight into the eyes. "To you they may be innocent, since you were a human once yourself, but to us it makes no large difference. They persecute us demons none the less, killing us and purifying us, not once thinking about how we feel about them being in our territory. The lands once belonged to our clans and they just settled here and felt it was in their right to kill and exterminate us, not once even considering how we felt about the whole thing. You can barely call them innocent since they killed us too." The demon's eyes held hate towards the humans that were running around and screaming in the village below but her hatred towards the demons never wavered.
"That does not give you the right to kill them like this. For a mere distraction." She spat out and looked at the village below, pain clouding her eyes.
Some movement at the sides caught her eye and she stared in surprise as she noted two groups arriving at the village at opposite ends. She saw them waving around their hands and shouting out to the villagers before rushing in. At least that was what one group did. The other one merely surveyed the scene before three broke off from their group and ran to the river that was close by and came back with water and beginning to slowly extinguish the flames. Quickly she and the others hid themselves as they continued to observe the scene below.
Well, she remained, intent on seeing what was going to happen. The other demons vanished, saying that they would go back to the caves and report what had happened here to Hisashi and Naraku.
Within minutes the flames were out and the people were rescued, many crying in despair with what had happened to their village. They talked to both groups, which seemed to recognise one another. Intent on finding out what they were saying, she crept closer to the village, masking her presence with the help of her miko powers.
"Sesshomaru, what are you doing here?" The shorter of the two silver haired men asked the other, she quickly noted that they were youkai, well one of them was a full one while the other appeared to be a hanyou.
"We were following a trail when we saw the smoke. We came to investigate." The taller one called Sesshomaru responded, keeping his sentences clipped and short.
"That's Lord Sesshomaru to you you imbicile!" A small, green, goblin-like creature called out to the shorter one, obviously angered at him. He was also a demon.
"Oh shut it Jaken." A woman came out from behind a larger creature with another young man and they both placed two children onto the ground. They had obviously saved them from the falling debris in the village. The mothers immediately rushed over, crying and fussing over them as they also profusely thanked them both. They both appeared to be human.
"Inuyasha, I think this was the work of some demons." A man clad in the clothing of a monk came forth, followed by a slightly pregnant woman and a small kitsune and a cat with two tails.
"How come?" The one called Inuyasha looked over at the monk and she was shocked to see how well they all appeared to get along. They were humans and demons, how could they get along at all?
"We've found traces of the energies of demons at the outskirts of the village." Another young woman dressed in miko clothes this time appeared. A bow and some arrows were strapped to her back and Midoriko noted with surprise that she resembled Kikyo quite a lot.
"Are they still fresh?" The one called Inuyasha looked at the miko and she nodded.
"Yeah, they're still fresh but from what we can see, they abruptly stop a short distance away from the village. Almost like they began to mask their presence there." She looked annoyed at the act that the demons had performed.
"Maybe we can..." Inuyasha began.
"No." The one called Sesshomaru immediately said, making Inuyasha cast a very annoyed glare in his direction. "We can't detect their smells due to this abominable smoke. I could hardly even detect your smells when I came here. It was only because I know them from before that I was able to recognise them. An unknown smell isn't something we can easily pick out from the air, especially if it's clogged up with the smoke from the fire like this." He waved his hand at the air around him in an abstract manner.
"That..." The monk began.
"Sucks." The pregnant woman finished for him and sat down on the small log that she had been standing next to.
"The demons probably started the fire to throw us off." Midoriko stiffened as she looked over at the young woman who had brought the children from the ruins with the other, slightly younger, man.
"Why do you think that?" Sesshomaru asked her, interest in his eyes.
"Yes, please do explain." The smaller, goblin-like demon said sarcastically. "Why would demons do something like that." His tone held a mocking sing-song. It was obvious that he didn't like the woman all that much. The other humans had gone over and gathered in a group, discussing what they should do now, which left the two groups that had helped them to themselves.
"I've been around long enough to know that demons don't randomly attack villages. It may seem like that to humans, but they actually don't. There is always a clear agenda behind their attack. Whether it is revenge for some other act or due to hunger or place, normal demons don't just attack. And then should they do do that, for some bizarre reason, then they attack the village and cause an utter carnage or significant damage themselves. They don't just set the village into flames and retreat. I mean, look at it from their point of view. Why do something as cowardly as retreat and miss out on seeing you enemies suffer? It makes no sense. Which leaves the only logical conclusion that they are attempting to through us off track and distract us." She looked into each of their eyes, the conviction in her own showing that she truly believed this to be the case.
"Which means that we shouldn't let ourselves get distracted." The monk nodded as he appeared to be deep in thought. "And if that is correct then the demons have someone heading them, someone telling them what to do."
"I don't see how it can be any other way by now." The pregnant woman said, anger burning brightly in her eyes.
"But using an innocent human village as a sacrifice, it really is too hard. How dare they do that?!" The miko stated angrily, her eyes also burning brightly.
"From their perspective it might not be that stupid." The young man who had been standing quietly until now spoke for the first time. The other young woman nodded.
"He's right. Although they may haved used this burning as a way to distract us, successfully if I might add, it may have held an element of revenge within it as well. After all, humans have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of demons. So killing a few 'innocent' humans, who have probably done their fair share in persecuting demons, won't weigh down on their conscience in any way, form or manner."
"We should go." Sesshomaru stated calmly. He appeared to want to continue on with their former journey.
"A wise decision Lord Sesshomaru." The smaller goblin nodded happily at him, which earned him an annoyed and frustrated scowl from the other woman.
"We really shouldn't waste much more time." The monk stated placatingly, somehow sensing that some sort of dispute would break out otherwise.
"We'll see you around then." The woman smiled at the group that remained while following Sesshomaru closely. The younger man bid the pregnant woman goodbye by hugging her before running after the retreating figures of his group, waving along the way before vanishing around a bend.
Midoriko pulled back and began to make her way back to the caves. She had heard more than enough. So those two silver-haired men were the two brothers that the others constantly talked about, Inuyasha, the younger brother as well as a hanyou and Sesshomaru, the older one and current Lord of the Western Lands.
She decided to not tell the others that their attempted diversion had failed. She didn't feel like telling them.
What irked her though was the way that one of the women had looked. Those green eyes annoyed her and she felt that she had seen them somewhere before. But that was quite impossible, wasn't it? She had died five hundred years ago after all.